Stefano Casiraghi - Death

Death

Casiraghi was killed in an offshore powerboat racing accident off the coast of Monaco near Cap Ferrat on 3 October 1990 while defending his world offshore title. He was 30 years old and had planned to retire after this race. Only weeks earlier, he had escaped death when his boat blew up off the coast of Guernsey.

There were three to four-foot wave conditions on the race course, which caused Casiraghi's 42-foot catamaran, Pinot di Pinot, to flip. Traveling at plus-90 mph, it did not have a full canopy, and experts who studied the accident have said that Casiraghi would most likely have survived the accident had the boat been equipped with such a canopy. As a result of his death, safety laws became more stringent; a safety harness and closed hull became compulsory, as was a twin hull design for boats. Races nowadays take place close to the harbor where waves are gentler, which is policed off for safety reasons as boats are no longer allowed to drive near the course.

Casiraghi's copilot, Patrice Innocenti, survived the accident. He was pulled from the water and taken to Monaco's Princess Grace Hospital.

The funeral Mass was held in Monaco's Cathedral of St. Nicholas exactly eight years after Princess Grace's funeral in the same place.

Stefano Casiraghi is buried in the Chapelle de la Paix in Monaco, which is also the resting place of his wife's paternal grandfather, Prince Pierre of Monaco.